Star Fox The Second Sauria Crisis
by general whitefur
Summary: Someone is stirring up trouble on Sauria and it's up to Fox and the crew of the Great Fox III to find out who is behind all of this and stop them. But the question is, will they figure it out before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Well ladies and gents I am back to writing Star Fox. For those of you who remember I took down my story Star Fox Intrigue a month or two ago. This story is very, very, loosely based on that story. But there will be little to no politics, the whole warlord and Titania thing is gone, and a lot of the stuff that I simply thought was extraneous and unnecessary is gone. Instead it is going to be replaced by action, adventure, discovery, and mystery, as well as a lot of things from the little known past of Cerinia. So I hope you enjoy it and please leave a review if you feel so inclined. And now to the story…

Star Fox the Second Sauria Crisis

Chapter One

Vacation Interrupted

January 17, 2161

Cape Claw Sauria

Fox and Krystal lay on the sand of Cape Claw in their bathing suits soaking up the warmth of the sun. Fox had said that as soon as he got back from the 1980s he was going to take a vacation to Sauria, it seemed to be the only place he could go with someone and not have memories of unpleasant battles return. Of course he had fought plenty of battles on this world, and had had his share of life threatening happenings here, but for some reason none of them seemed to be quite so terrible, after all, this was the most beautiful planet in the Lylat System, and as far as Fox was concerned the whole galaxy.

Cape Claw was probably one of the most beautiful places on the planet, tropical, with crystal clear water that was always warm enough to swim in, and was usually nice and secluded. Fox loved the stone ruins of the Krazoa that marked the entrance to the Ocean Force Point Temple, a place that he had been too twice and had thought both times was one of the most mysterious places he had ever seen. He knew that there were probably numerous areas in it that he and no one else had ever seen, and he had decided that he would take the time while he was on leave to explore the temple as thoroughly as possible.

Fox smiled as his son Marcus splashed around in the placid waters of the beach. About an hour ago Fox had made a sand castle with him, which had promptly been destroyed when Marcus had decided that the king was not well like by his neighbors and had been laid siege to. Fox laughed a little at the fact that his son had literally looked for rocks to throw at it as if they were from catapults and had even done an imitation of the cacophony of battle. Something Fox and Krystal were well familiar with; and something that both hoped their son never would never have to be.

Krystal looked at him and said "What's so funny?"

Fox smiled and rolled over to look at her, she was beautiful, blue fur, short blue hair, emerald eyes, and a lithe and beautiful body. "I was just thinking of Marcus's battle that he had with that sand castle we spent an hour making. How long did it take him to destroy it? Two, three minutes tops?"

Krystal smiled, it wasn't the first time that Marcus had broken or destroyed something that had required effort for her or Fox to make. Marcus really did have a bad habit of breaking things; Fox thought it must be in the McCloud genetic code. "Probably less, but don't get to broken up over it Fox, it's not the first time that he's decided that something needs to be destroyed. If you recall the model Arwing that you spent a week perfecting for him?"

Fox sighed, he did indeed remember, last year for Marcus's sixth birthday, he was now rapidly approaching seven, Fox had built a twelve inch replica of his first Arwing, it had been complete with everything, a paint job as splendorous as a real Arwing, all the moving parts, and even little lasers in the wings to simulate the real laser cannons on the ship. The next day Fox had walked into Marcus's room to see the entire thing in ruins on his son's floor. "Yes I do remember that. I recall he said it was hit by Anti-Aircraft cannons during an assault on Venom."

Krystal laughed and replied "Well, at least it was realistic. After all I recall you were hit by your share of AA guns."

Fox shrugged and said "Yeah, but I never completely destroyed my fighter. But yes I would say that I have been shot at and hit by more than my fair share of AA guns."

Krystal looked at her husband; he was built to say the least, strong arms, washboard abs, beautiful green eyes, and a face that, like hers, never showed a sign of aging. And he had a winning smile as well as a keen intellect, and he loved her to death, just like she did to him. She could think of only one thing in the entire universe that they both loved more than each other, and that would be their son Marcus. Who, she now noticed, was running up to them looking expectant of something.

Marcus McCloud was a six year old boy who showcased in most people's opinion the best traits of his parents; his fur was blue on the head and most of his body, though he had flecks of orange around his wrists. And he was already developing telepathy, a fact that had lead to a few embarrassing moments when Marcus had walked in on his parents during an intimate moment. Fox and Krystal hadn't been able to look at each other without blushing for days, though Marcus didn't even seem to remember the incident.

As soon as he got there Marcus said "Mommy, Daddy, when do we get to go inside the Ocean Temple?"

Fox looked at Krystal and said "We could go now, but I don't know if you wanted to check the place out, make sure it's safe for a six year old. You never know, could be Sharpclaw in there or something."

Krystal smiled and replied "Fox the Sharpclaw haven't been a problem since you killed Scales years ago. I'm sure it's fine, want to go?"

Fox nodded and the two got up. Fox pulled on a shirt and Krystal shrugged at herself and said "What does it matter, there's going to be a lot of water anyways."

Fox smiled and the three headed towards the temple entrance. The massive Krazoa head stood there as normal as ever, not looking any different despite the years that had gone by since Fox and Krystal had last seen it. It was large and vaguely ape looking with a beard carved out of it and the entrance to the Temple being its mouth. When Fox walked through it he was assaulted by a flood of memories, when he had first walked in there it had taken him half an hour just to get through to the other side of a door which was now open and only about six or seven yards away. He saw the two beams of light that entered through the two eyes in the Krazoa head hitting the fire gems, each one a bright and brilliant orange.

Marcus noticed these and ran up to one of them and touched it, he immediately yelped and jumped back. Fox laughed "Hot aren't they? They're called fire gems; they're what let us go in and out of the Temple."

Marcus looked curiously at them and wondered how they did that, "How do they do that?"

Fox smiled and said "Magic, and when it comes to things from Sauria that's never far from the truth."

The three travelled through the small corridors and hallways until they got to the court yard leading to the gate that would allow them entrance. Marcus ran up to one of the pillars of water and stared at it considering the fact that the water was holding itself up. He could tell it wasn't ice, and it was too hot for it to be anyways. He decided to touch it; his finger went straight through the liquid but didn't seem to disturb it in the slightest. He saw his mother and father walk up behind him, looking at them he asked "What's holding it up?"

Fox shrugged and Krystal said "I don't really know, I would guess though that it has something to do with the powers of the Krazoa spirits. Though I know that probably doesn't mean much to a six year old, does it Marcus?"

Marcus shook his head, he was completely baffled by this planet; nothing he had learned in school seemed to explain anything that happened on this world, and besides every six year old knew that water couldn't hold itself up, except apparently by magic. But he had never been told in school that there was such a thing as magic, but when he had come here with his parents they had told him that a great deal of things that happened here were simply magical. It seemed to be the most confusing but awe-inspiring thing for a child. "Not really mom, but it's still really cool."

Fox smiled and said "Well wait until you get inside, it's probably one of the most beautiful and mysterious places that's you'll ever see Marcus."

The three then ascended the two ladders leading to the small semi-circular entrance gate. Fox was the first one up and was thus the first one to get to the entrance gate. Looking at it he noticed that it had apparently been opened recently, by explosives of some sort. The chard hole in it was still smoking, Fox sighed and said quietly "Fuck, fuck and fuck again."

Krystal walked over with Marcus and said "What the hell?"

Fox looked at her and said, "You and Marcus go back to the beach and call Fay on the Great Fox III, tell her I need a team inside the Ocean Force Point Temple ASAP."

"What about you?" asked Krystal, although after being married to Fox McCloud for years she knew the answer already.

Fox smiled, he could tell that she already knew the answer, and he could sense a bit of her annoyance and anxiety when he said "I'm just going to go inside and take a quick look around. I'll be fine, trust me."

Marcus was becoming a bit confused over what was transpiring, even with his fledgling telepathy that was nowhere near its full potential yet he could sense the emotions from both his parents. He could also tell that they were having a silent argument over what his dad had just said. Finally his mother simply gave in and said "Fine, but be careful, and when Fay sends down the troops, I'm going to be coming in with them. And don't you dare get killed, got it?"

Fox nodded and gave both of them a kiss, he waited until Krystal and Marcus were through the door on the other side of the court yard before walking into the Temple, fully aware that he could be killed depending on what was down there.

Krystal and Marcus made it out to the beach a minute or two later, as soon as they got back to the place where they had left their bags she fished out her comm badge and pressed it. "Krystal to Great Fox III, come in."

A moment later the sound of Katt's voice on board the ship came back to her saying "Katt here, what is it Krystal, you sound agitated. Fox forget the condoms?"

Marcus looked at her inquisitively but said nothing, being six years old he had no real idea what those were. "Katt, Marcus is right here, so watch what you say. The reason I called was that someone has broken into the Ocean Force Point Temple, and I need a team of troopers down here now."

Katt's voice came back a moment later asking "How?"

Krystal rolled her eyes and said "They blew down the door, there's no other way to get in there. And Fox went in there for the usual unstated reason that he's a cocky bastard who seems to enjoy putting himself into dangerous situations, so I need those troopers down here now. And tell Decius to come down here with my staff too."

Katt took a moment then said "Alright done, they'll be down there in a minute or two, Decius with them. And don't get your tail in a knot; Fox is only cocky because he's damn good. Katt out and Great Fox III out."

Krystal set down her comm badge and kneeled down next to Marcus and said "Marcus this is very important, when the men get down here I'm going to tell one of them to stay with you out here, for two reasons, one to keep you safe from anyone who may want to hurt you, and two to keep you from wandering off and hurting yourself."

Marcus nodded, he didn't really have any idea what was going on, all he knew was that someone had apparently broken into the Temple that he had wanted to see and thus ruined his chance of being able to see it. And he didn't like that his mother and father were apparently either saying he was in danger or that they were in danger. But he decided that the best thing he could do was listen to his mother and try and stay out of the way. "Ok mom I understand. Is daddy going to be ok?"

Krystal sighed and hugged her son, more for her own comfort than for his since she could sense that he wasn't all that worried, how could he be? He was only six years old, he had no idea what fighting was like other than a scuffle on the playground or something cool in a movie. On the other hand she had done a lot of fighting in her life, and she knew that when it came down to it she hated everything about it. "I hope so Marcus, but don't worry, daddy can handle himself, he always has."

Fox entered the Temple and noticed that a path had been cleared through the electric stone barrier already. Quickly and quietly moving across it he took stock of his surroundings. Everything seemed as it should be, the water was placid, the walls intact, and no sounds other than the dripping of water. He made his way up to the teleporter pad and stood on top of it. A moment later it activated and he was beamed to the central part of the Temple. As soon as he materialized he made his way to the large gate like doors, they slid open for him. They closed far more loudly than he liked, stopping he listened, he could hear something, some sort of strange muttering, he moved towards it, going through one of the stone portals he moved quickly across the corridor and then stopped again to listen. The sound was coming closer. He took cover behind a low stone wall and waited, breathing as quietly as possible while listening as hard as possible.

About a minute later he heard footsteps and could recognize something of what was being said. "Nash quiga nom tuu, vers theced."

He raised an eyebrow; it was an old Papetoonian dialect, rarely used anymore though it had been common in his father's generation. He didn't personally speak it but he knew he could remember the words. He hoped to God that Katt could speak it, or that it was at least in the translator on board the ship.

A moment later and the voices and footsteps were in the room he was in, they stopped suddenly and Fox thought, _I'm blown._ One of the voices, male by the sound of it said in thickly accented Cornerian Basic "Whoze Zere?"

Fox stood up and said "I might be asking you the same thing."

The two people who stood in front of him were young vulpines of a build that wouldn't hold a candle to Fox any day of his life. But it was what they were holding that scared the hell out of him, a Spell Stone. "And who might ya be?"

Fox looked them both in the eyes and said "Your worst nightmare." With that he charged into the one with the stone, tackling him over. He landed a punch straight to the vulpines nose and heard the bone shatter. The other tried to pull him off but Fox simply did a back hand punch. He grabbed the Spell Stone and got up, but before he could do anything else he felt a pain through his leg, and saw small hole through it, a blaster hole. His wounded leg couldn't support him and he fell to the ground clutching at the wound which was just beginning to hurt. He saw the two vulpines run out of the temple and said to himself "Oh Krystal is going to kill me."

Krystal, Decius, and three Cornerian troopers materialized in the main temple. Krystal looked around; she could sense Fox but no one else. A moment later she realized that Fox was in pain, she looked at Decius who nodded and said "I sense him too, but I don't think he's too badly injured."

Krystal nodded and said "I'll go to him, the rest of you should spread out and do a search of the Temple, make sure there aren't any people here that shouldn't be."

Decius nodded and motioned for his squad to follow him, Krystal meanwhile quickly homed in on Fox, she found him lying on the floor with a hole in his leg. "FOX!" she ran over to him, he was conscious, "Are you alright?"

Fox smiled, it was just a reassuring smile, one that he had had a lot of practice with in the past when he got shot up. "I'm fine; wound was cauterized by the heat of the plasma bullet so no bleeding. And the guy was a crappy shot, didn't take out any bone, I think."

Krystal smiled at him, she loved Fox, especially when he acted calm about this kind of thing, she had never seen him truly freak out over a wound that he had sustained. On the other hand whenever someone else had been wounded he tended to have sleepless nights and would be hard to tear away from the sick bed. "Well I'm sure Miyu will have you all fixed up in no time. Assuming you don't die when she screams at you for getting shot and not calling her immediately. I think she's protective of you."

Fox laughed and said "Me and the whole damn galaxy, no wonder she's such a good doctor. Now are you going to get me to the ship or not? The sooner I heal the sooner we get back to vacation and love making."

Krystal smiled and tapped her comm badge "Krystal to Great Fox III, two to beam directly to sick bay."

He smiled. The first stone was soon to be his, and with it the first of the four keys could be found. But he sensed something he neither liked nor expected; a chance for failure, a chance that the Heart might find a champion, or a companion. And this was something that he could not allow. And so he stopped smiling and immersed himself in time and watched, perhaps the outcome would still work in his favor.


	2. Chapter 2 Vacations Canceled

A/N: Well here is the second chapter of the exciting tale that I have begun telling. It's short and sweet with a little bit of action to keep things interesting. So read on everyone, and enjoy the chapter.

Chapter Two

Vacations Canceled

January 17th 2161

Great Fox III

Fox and Krystal materialized in sickbay onboard the Great Fox III, Miyu immediately ran over to them with a medical scanner in hand. She got to Fox and said "How do you feel?"

Fox looked at her like she was crazy and said "How do I feel? I just got shot in the fucking leg. How do you _think_ I feel?"

"Like a cocky bastard who always gets in over his head. Now how the hell did this happen?"

Fox sighed and said "Two idiots stole a Spell Stone and I tried to get it back, one of them must have pulled a blaster when I wasn't looking. How bad is it?"

Miyu looked at it and then took a scan. She shrugged and said "Nothing a little growth gel can't handle. I'll have you running marathons like you're still an academy cadet in about a day. In the meantime you are not to leave that bio-bed," she pointed to one right next to her office, "Until I tell you that you can. Otherwise I sedate you and we have a shortage of growth gel and you get to have a scar there for the rest of your life. We clear?"

Fox nodded "Anyone ever tell you have a wonderful bedside manner Miyu?"

She just smiled and helped him over to the bed. When he laid down Krystal gave him a quick kiss and said "I'm going to go and change, then I'll be on the bridge if you need me."

Fox nodded and kissed her then said "Oh I'll be needing you as soon as my leg is healed, if you catch my drift."

Krystal smiled and headed for their quarters.

Fiora was sweating. In fact she was sweating so much that she could barely see anything. She was only just able to see the old master swordsman that she had programmed into the Great Fox IIIs holographic database that she was now fighting. But despite this she was still holding her own, after all, she didn't really need to see, she could sense. She had been at this for hours on end, fighting against an enemy she knew that she couldn't simply tire out, so she had set the match to end when she got three touches, she had gotten two thus far, but the third eluded her.

Once again she artfully dodged an attack on her left arm and countered by jumping in the air while spinning and landing a blow that she hoped would end the game in her favor. Instead her swing was blocked and countered with a swift upper cut that she only just barely managed to avoid. Just then a voice rang out of the comm system in the holo-deck saying "Will Fiora please come to the bridge, we have a problem."

She tapped her comm badge and said "On my way. Computer, end program." The holographic environment, as well as her opponent dissolved and she was in the middle of a large square room with a grid pattern of yellow lines arrayed throughout it. She sniffed and thought _Jeez don't I smell pretty?_ She shrugged and walked out of the room and made her way to a turbo lift. Just as the door opened she sensed the occupant. Smiling she said "Hey sis."

Krystal smiled back and said "What's up?"

Fiora got in and said "Bridge." Then looking at her sister she said "I just fought a damn computer opponent for three hours straight, and I only landed two touches on the bastard."

Krystal laughed and said "Three hours? No wonder I was going to ask if you were trying some new perfume."

Fiora rolled her eyes and looked down at herself, her blood red fur was disheveled from all of the movement, and she felt damp. "Sorry, but apparently I don't have time to shower. Am I that bad?"

Krystal sniffed and said "Yep, that bad."

Fiora grinned and asked "Is Decius on the bridge?"Krystal shook her head. "Damn I thought I might be able to turn him off enough to get some sleep tonight."

Krystal laughed and said "Knowing Decius it would probably do the exact opposite. Besides I thought you were the one who came on to him every night."

"Oh shut up, you do the same to Fox."

"Correction, we come on to each other at the same time. But it doesn't matter; I would still come on to him even if he didn't want me to."

Before Fiora could respond the doors to the bridge opened and Fiora and Krystal moved to their respective posts. Krystal sat down the left of the command chair which was now occupied by Fay, a white collie about her age who was in the habit of wearing a red bow in her hair. Fiora sat down at the left hand side of the bridge in front of a large set of consoles marked science. Keying herself into the system she said "Ok so what's the problem?"

Fay walked over and said "Someone stole a Spell Stone from the Ocean Force Point Temple, and I need you to scan for it."

Fiora raised an eyebrow and said "Do you know what they're made out of?"

Fay shrugged "No idea, but they're magical, shouldn't that narrow down the search?"

Fiora sighed and said "Fay I hate to break this to you, but my sensors cannot scan for magic. I mean there is not a button marked 'Magicalness' that I can simply hit and find out where something magical is. Now I can scan for the material that it's made out of, but since I don't know that I can't actually do that. So I really have nothing to go off of here, unless there's some other thing that I could scan for, like the ship that the robbers are going to have to use to get off the surface."

Fay smiled "Well, how many spaceships could be on Sauria, go ahead and…" She didn't finish her sentence, instead the ship lurched and suddenly and threw her off of her feet. She jumped up and said "Report!"

The ensign at the tactical console looked at her and said "A small ship is coming up from the surface, she's firing on us."

"Shields up, tactical alert, I want that thing in a tractor beam now." The ship rocked again, Fay swore. "I want that thing on visual, now!"

The ship popped up on the view-screen, it was a small angular vessel with a single ion engine. Compared to the Great Fox III the ship was the size of an atom. Fiora looked up from her console and said "The ship is on a vector outbound from the system and is powering its warp drive."

The ship vibrated a little as a second blast impacted on the shields. The ensign at tactical said "Shields holding at ninety-seven percent, but the ship is going to quickly for a tractor beam lock."

Fay looked at him and said "Then give me a firing solution from the plasma batteries to disable its engines."

The ensign nodded, then Fiora said "Too late, they've gone to warp."

Fay looked at the screen just as the small vessel elongated briefly before quite literally jumping to faster than light speeds. Fay growled and said darkly "I hate it when people get away with shooting at us. Tell me you know where they went Fiora."

Fiora nodded and said "Yes, but you won't like where they're going."

Krystal walked over and asked "Where?"

Fiora sighed and said "The Aparoid System."

Everyone on the bridge looked at each other; the thought of anyone going to that system was ominous indeed.


	3. Chapter 3 Old Foes Reemerge

A/N: Alight ladies and gentlemen this chapter will reveal the main villain, one who may be familiar. Read on…

Chapter Three

Old Foes reemerge

The small ship exited warp in what had once been the Aparoid home system, a system of only two planets that had been the crown jewel of an ancient long dead empire. An empire whose legacy had been to leave behind the most lethal of its creations to avenge its demise. But none of this really mattered to the two beings inside the small ship. They were just two young vulpines who had always wanted to be mercenaries, and so they had decided to become just that: Mercenaries. But their high hopes of becoming the next Star Fox team had been quickly dashed when they found that they had very little real skill, thus they had been forced to live on minor jobs of intimidation and petty theft.

One of the vulpines, a lanky fellow by the name of Paul, had, with his friend next to him named Nevar; come across then what they had thought would be their breakthrough job. A job that offered fifty million credits down payment as well as any equipment they wanted for the job. They had never seen the man who had given them this job, he had instead worked through intermediaries who had had a tendency to change constantly, but it had been hinted that they might meet him on the completion of their task.

The task itself had been simple, steal a Spell Stone from Sauria and bring it back to this star system. They had been given a ship, weapons, and the means to get into the temple. But they hadn't thought to realize that a Cornerian vessel would be in orbit, or that Fox McCloud might just happen upon them in the Temple. Despite that they had made it away, and outfought the toughest most lethal man in the known galaxy. Needless to say Paul and Nevar felt very proud of themselves, and had no doubt that they were now approaching their gigantic payoff.

Their ship moved steadily closer to the second planet in the Aparoid home system, it appeared as a small glowing orb on their view-screens, and looked completely unassuming. Neither of them had any idea the significance of that world, nor what the purpose of stealing the Spell Stone had been, nor why they had to bring it to this particular place. How could they? Or rather what did they care? All they wanted was their payoff, unlike the famous Star Fox team of the past; these two mercenaries were unconcerned with ethics or what the repercussions of their actions might be. And so they continued to that world in silent expectance of their payday, not realizing who it was on the surface that was waiting for them.

The fox sat on a small chair on the old and dilapidated landing pad, the only one that still existed on this world, this long forgotten world. He looked through his one good eye at the surroundings; the world was barren, long devoid of life, the result of its master's destruction. But everywhere still there was the evidence of past life, ruined buildings, old roads, and a certain presence that only he and others like him could feel. The presence of a race thought to be long dead, a race that had controlled a hundred thousand worlds before members of his species had even begun to stand erect.

The fox's ears perked up as he heard the roar of engines approaching. He would have smiled, but he had lost the ability to do that long ago, he no longer smiled because to do so was to embrace the light. And light was something that he had no desire to embrace, not anymore, that desire, a desire that was present in every other individual in the universe, had long ago left him. He pulled up the hood on his cloak and stood up, at only about six feet he was not frightfully tall, but the beings he had encountered often cowered before him. After all, to not do so was to risk death.

As the small ship came to a rest on the pad in front of him his cape billowed in the wind. A ramp came down and two vulpines like himself walked down, he looked at them from under the shadow of his hood and almost felt pity for the creatures as they walked towards him. The one in the lead, slightly taller than the other, was holding the Spell Stone, and though the fox never smiled or felt joy anymore, he did feel a certain degree of satisfaction that these pathetic underlings had accomplished their task.

The tall one, Paul if the fox remembered correctly, smiled when he reached him and said "We have the stone, and I believe you have our money."

The fox nodded silently and motioned for them to follow. He turned and began walking without looking back, but he could sense the two vulpines following him, and he could sense their anxiety, he found it satisfying, fear was something that he enjoyed instilling in other beings. A moment later he stopped and looked up at the sky, making a brief keening noise that he could tell was unnerving the two others with him, he summoned a group of four rings, the rings were made of stone and they were large enough to envelop the three. He halted the keening and a moment later a wash of dark blue covered them. He could feel the effect of the teleporter as it sent them a mile beneath the ground of the world; the ground stopped being real about a kilometer down and then became solid titanium. The three of them were sent through it in about three seconds and then arrived in a large underground enclosure.

It was dark, too dark for most beings to see, the fox would have no trouble finding his way through the room, he didn't need his eyes, or rather his eye, to see. But he realized the same couldn't be said for the other two so he snapped his fingers, a moment later torches along the walls lit with red, blue, and green flame, snapped to life, illuminating the room in an eerie fashion. The fox looked at the two other vulpines and noted the look of awe on their faces. No doubt the majesty of this place, with its ceiling that reached up to a hundred meters above, and its stately pillars, was quite impressive to them, but to the fox it was nothing compared to what he had seen.

Motioning for them to follow once more he walked to an altar in the very center of the room. The altar was made of a smooth and polished stone, unbreakable to anything but the most powerful magic. Looking back at them he spoke for the first time, "The Spell Stone."

The one named Paul chose that moment to become defiant of his orders, "Wait a second mister, let's see the money first."

The two foxes were fortunate that they could not see how he looked at them; it would have been enough to kill most beings. "You will receive your payment when your task is complete, and until I have the Stone it is not complete."

Paul continued to resist, "We want proof that you have the money, and proof that you won't just kill us when we hand you the stone."

The fox nearly smiled at Paul's unfortunate choice of words before saying "Kill you? Now that you mention it, that might be a good idea. Now hand the Stone to me."

Paul stood his ground. The fox was momentarily impressed by the creature's courage, but courage was a dangerous thing, the fox made a simple double snap of his fingers and then the sound of heavy foot falls began to echo in the chamber and along with them the clinking of metal. A moment later a group of armored beings appeared, outfitted in armor that covered them from head to toe with a helmet shaped like a serpents head. Each one carried a Cerinian staff; the fox looked at one of them and said "Kill the one in front."

The being pointed the staff at Paul and then a bolt of searing fire like energy came forth, when it hit Paul it burned a hole through him, and he fell dead to the ground. The Serpent who had shot him then looked at the fox and silently asked what should be done with the other. These warriors had no need for speech, their telepathy was strong, and each was linked to the fox through an unbreakable bond, they were called Serpent Warriors. The fox simply shook his head and said aloud for the benefit of the other "He may live, he may prove useful." Looking back at the vulpine that was cowering and close to whimpering openly he said "What is your name?"

The vulpine looked down and said quietly "Nevar."

The fox nodded and adopted a more friendly tone, "Now Nevar, I would like it if you would give me the Stone. And if you do I will see to it that you live and you will be useful to me."

Nevar silently picked up the Spell Stone and handed it to the fox. The fox took it and turned to the altar, kneeling down in front of it he said in an ancient dialect that few even knew existed he said "NA tama, JaU tac MA'tac, NAcK NuSon."

And before Nevar's uncomprehending eyes the altar parted, where the center of the altar had been were five slots, each one the same shape as the Spell Stone. The fox slowly placed the Spell Stone in the slot farthest to the left. It fit perfectly; when it was in place he stood back up and said to the Serpent Warriors "The first one is in place and with it our Master gains strength. Now go and rest once again, soon you will be needed."

The Serpent Warriors withdrew and the fox looked at Nevar, he was trembling. The fox walked over to him and said "I have a new mission for you, you must take your ship and go back to Lylat, go to Papetoon, wait there until Fox McCloud comes, and when he does, make sure he does not come here until I want him to." The fox then added "But, first I must gain your true unbreakable allegiance. Hold out you hand."

Nevar did so, the fox took his hand in one of his own and then looked directly at Nevar's. Suddenly Nevar screamed in horror and pain as a burn mark appeared on his hand, suddenly then the pain stopped, and on his hand was a symbol, a fox's head encircled by two serpents. Nevar then felt calm, as if all his fears were gone. Looking up at the fox he said "I will go my master, and I will do as you have instructed me."

With that Nevar made that same keening sound and the same stone rings encircled him, and then he was gone.

Then Alex, the fox, pulled off his hood and looked back at the altar which was now closing. He felt one thing, satisfaction.


	4. Chapter 4 Back Up and Running

A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, here it is chapter four of the Second Sauria Crisis, please read and enjoy!

Chapter Four

Back Up and Running

Fox woke with a start as Miyu pulled on his ear. "OW! God Miyu how did they let you become a doctor?"

Miyu looked at him and said nonchalantly "I had skill, you can go as soon as you want, the growth gel took so your leg is fine again. But don't get shot again or I will make sure that you have to stay here for a week."

Fox smiled and said "Miyu, are you in love with me?"

Miyu smiled back and said "In your dreams, now get out of here and report to your wife and kid, I'm sure they're both wondering where you are."

Fox looked at her and said "I thought they knew I was in here."

Miyu shrugged "You were supposed to be out of here an hour ago, but you looked so cute when you were sleeping I was loathe to wake you up."

Fox hopped out of the bed and said "Just wait until Krystal hears that you think I'm cute, oh you will never hear the end of it from her."

Miyu looked Fox up and down and then said "I liked you better when you were asleep, now get out of here before I call Krystal and tell her you were late from some other reason."

Fox shrugged and left sickbay. As soon as he was out in the hall he said "Serina AI on."

Instantly the holographic representation of the ships Artificial Intelligence popped up next to him. "What do you want Fox?"

Fox raised an eyebrow and said "That's admiral to you, just kidding. Would you mind telling me where my wife is?"

Serina shrugged and said "Holo-deck four, what else do you need?"

"Just don't tell her I'm coming."

Serina nodded and then faded away, Fox smiled and got into one of the lifts and said "Deck ten." The lift started moving. As soon as it stopped and the doors opened he jogged over to the holo-deck, putting his hand on the touch panel he looked at the program that was in use. "Woodland pattern three? Somewhat normal for her."

Keying open the door he stepped in. The woodland pattern was a favorite among the crew as it simulated a Cornerian sub-tropical forest so well. Though he thought it odd that Krystal would be using it, she usually went for something a little fancier, like an asteroid with a nice view of a nebula, or more often than not, a combat simulator. As soon as the door closed behind him he called out "Krystal, where are you?"

A moment later her voice called back "Over here behind the huge tree in front of you, across the creek!"

Fox nodded to himself and made his way over to her. When he got to where she was he saw her sitting with her back up against the tree reading a book. Sitting down next to her he said "Miss me?"

Krystal smiled and kissed him, he responded by pulling her close to him and kissing her again with a great deal of passion. When they broke off she said "Yes, it was boring going to sleep without you last night."

Fox smiled and asked "Why?"

Krystal put her head on his shoulders and said "Because I'm used to cuddling with you, or playing around a bit."

Fox looked at her and said "Well I can promise that there will be plenty of playing around tonight. So, who attacked us yesterday?"

Krystal shrugged "No idea, but we think it was whoever took the Spell Stone, which reminds me, Fay wanted to talk with you as soon as you were out of the lair of Miyu."

"The lair of Miyu?"

Krystal laughed and said "That's what some of the crew has started calling it since she hasn't been out of there in a couple of days."

Fox laughed and said "Let me guess, and extremely delicate experiment?"

Krystal shrugged "She won't tell anyone. Now come on, let's go see Fay, to be honest I think that she can't wait to not be in command anymore."

Fox nodded and the two got up and left the holo-deck. When the exited and ended the program Krystal grabbed Fox's hand and said through her telepathy, '_Before we go and see Fay, would you like to make love?'_

Fox thought about then said aloud "We should wait, besides, I'm pretty sure I'll need it more after I hear from her. Why do you offer?"

Krystal shrugged and said "I don't know, we are married, and you did just get out of twenty-five hours of growth gel therapy, thought you might want a little excitement.

Fox smiled and gave her a kiss, then said "I could use a little excitement, but I think I'm going to get really excited when I hear about what's been going on while I was in bed. And I don't mean that in a good way."

Krystal nodded and the two got into the turbo-lift and headed for the bridge.

The doors to the bridge slid aside and Fox and Krystal walked onto the bridge. The crew immediately snapped to attention at their posts, Fox simply said "As you were." Walking over to Fay he said "I believe you're in my chair."

Fay smiled and got up; as soon as Fox sat down she said "I assume that Krystal said I wanted to talk to you as soon as you were out of sickbay?"

Fox nodded and replied "Yeah she did, what's so important?"

"Maybe we should talk in your ready room."

Fox shrugged and got up, the two went to his ready room just off the main bridge. The room was meant for when the captain or in Fox's case, admiral, wanted to get off the bridge while still on duty. Sitting down behind his desk Fox said "Alright what is it?"

Fay sat down on the other side of the desk and said "The ship that attacked us jumped to the Aparoid System, but we can't follow without both Command Council approval and presidential approval."

Fox sighed and said "That's right the quarantine. Alright here's what I'll do, I'll get on the com to Whitefur and see what we can do about it. In the meantime though I think we should try and find this ship, I would personally very much like to know how they got past the sensor grid that surrounds that system."

Fay nodded "Right sir, I'll start on that right away. How's the leg?"

"Perfect, completely fixed, I have to hand it to Miyu, she is a genius."

Fay laughed and said "Why? She just used some growth gel on you."

Fox smiled and replied "Well keep in mind that fact that she invented the damn thing. Now you have your orders, so snap to them."

Fay saluted smartly and walked out, feeling relieved at the thought that she now had something to do other than to wait for her orders. After all, if there was one thing she hated in life, it was waiting for anything.

As soon as she stepped back onto the bridge she headed to one of the computer terminals that were arrayed at the back of the bridge. Sitting down she keyed in her password to make sure she would get access to any and all files she needed, and started to sift through the data that would help her find the ship.

Fox hit a button on his desk and a flat screen monitor and keyboard revealed themselves from the innards of the desk. Fox smiled and said "Cool, I like this ship, all sorts of good stuff." looking towards one of the small holo-tanks he said "Serina come here will you?"

Serina appeared and said "Sir?"

"Get me a secure link to Bonny."

"Say please."

"Why?"

"Because I control life support. Sorry just kidding, link established, and may I say you look good today sir."

Fox smiled and said "Thank you Serina. By the way before you go one more thing. How many conversations are you having at this very moment?"

"Thirty-seven. Bonny will be waiting sir; best get him before he gets into a bad mood."

Fox nodded and made a motion for her to go away. A moment later an image of general Boniface Whitefur came up; Fox's long time friends looked at him and said "What the hell do you want?"

Fox smiled and said "Who said I want anything? Maybe I just called to see how you were doing; you know make sure Fara and James are all right. You know I am your friend, so I can be concerned."

Whitefur stared and then said "What do you want, more leave time? Because that is going to be a flat out no."

Fox shook his head and said "Alright fine be all work and no play. Look asshole stole a Spell Stone from Sauria yesterday and then attacked us. They went to the Aparoid System and from there we don't know. But obviously they either stowed it away there somewhere or they got rid of it there. But I need your OK to go there."

"No."

"No? What the hell do you mean no?"

Whitefur sighed and said "I mean you can't go there, at least not for awhile, mainly because I need to get presidential approval. And besides how would they have been able to get in there? The systems filled to bursting with sensor drones and all sorts of automated security measures."

Fox shrugged "Could have had a cloaking device."

Whitefur shook his head and replied "That wouldn't have mattered, remember we put a tachyon based detection net there, even a cloaked ship couldn't get in there."

Fox nodded and replied "Then they must have had the codes to get in or the detection net was offline. I don't know, but isn't the fact that they did get in there reason enough to check this out? I mean come on; we can't have ships breaching quarantines."

Whitefur shrugged and said "Find the ship first, then I might have reason enough to get you clearance. But why would anyone want to steal a Spell Stone in the first place?"

Fox thought about it, it didn't actually make that much sense. Scales had done because he wanted to grab power and rule over the whole planet, and of course he had been unknowingly working for Andross. But still, stealing just one that made no sense unless they were planning to steal the rest. "I don't know, they might intend to steal the rest but I really don't know why."

Whitefur nodded and said "Then it's all the more important that you find that ship, that way we can figure out who it is doing this and why their doing this."

Fox nodded and said "Alright, I guess I have my work cut out for me. But I would still like to get clearance for the Aparoid System."

Whitefur sighed and said "Alright, Alright, I'll work on it. You just had to make more work for me didn't you?"

"Yep, Fox out."

The communication ended and Fox leaned back in his chair and sighed, how long had he been master of this vessel? The most powerful ship to ever have been built, and crewed by the absolute best that Corneria had to offer, six days, that was how long it had been. It hadn't even been a week since they had cast off for their maiden voyage and they had already gone back in time and now they had to hunt for some lunatic who was after the Spell Stones. Fox sighed and looked at his watch, it would be four more hours before his watch ended, and he intended to have some fun as soon as that watch ended.

A moment his com badge chirped and he tapped it. "Fox here."

Fay's voice came back saying "We found it sir, satellite spotted it heading towards Papetoon."

Fox smiled and said "Copy that, get anyone on the surface back on board and then set course for Papetoon, best possible speed."

"Aye Aye sir, will do."

A few minutes later the ship was on its way to Papetoon, and everyone on board knew they had a mission to attend to.


	5. Chapter 5 It Just gets Better and Better

Chapter Five

It Just Gets Better and Better

Krystal was sitting in a bar, it was not any sort of classy bar or club, it was just a little hole in the wall where people went to get drunk. At this point Krystal was seriously considering calling the Great Fox III and telling Fox that she was going to scrub this mission and take the rest of the day off. Looking down at her drink she tried not to look disgusted when she noticed that a dead fly was floating in it.

She noticed then that someone had come over to her table and sat down, it was none other than Katt Monroe. Sighing she said "What do you want Katt, if you want money for another drink the answer is no, this place has the worst drinks imaginable."

Katt smiled and said "Aren't you in a mood. What, did we get here to soon?"

"What do you mean?"

Katt leaned closer to her and said "I mean did we get here too soon for you and Fox to make love?"

Krystal looked at her sharply and said "Don't talk about that here, Formers only know what people would assume if they heard us talking about sex."

Katt smiled even more and said "They'd still think were the hottest tail they've ever seen. Come on Krystal, you never used to mind going to bars and talking about this kind of stuff."

Krystal looked at her as if she were crazy and said "This is not a bar, hell this place doesn't even qualify as a brothel. I mean this place is just absolutely disgusting. And the clientele are even worse, nothing but hormonal young boys and dirty old men."

Katt shrugged and said "The last place I was seemed to have some attractive men our age."

Krystal snorted and said "Yeah where was that? Did you go back to a civilized world or something?"

Katt shook her head and replied "You know your husband's family came from here, you should show a little more respect."

Krystal rolled her eyes and said "In my opinion the McClouds were simply the exception that proved the rule. How much longer do we have to be here?"

Katt looked at her watch and said "About another hour, the team two comes down."

Krystal nodded and said "Who's in team two?"

"Fiora and Decius, it's really a shame we can't stay down here with them."

Krystal looked at her and asked "Why?"

Katt shrugged and said "It would be entertaining to see Decius try and beat up a guy for hitting on Fiora."

Krystal thought about it, she could see it clearly, her sister would absolutely love the whole situation. Fiora was considered by most to be Krystal's equal in terms of beauty, and on a planet like this that wouldn't go unnoticed. And of course Decius would never stand for some random guy hitting on his wife. "You're right you know, maybe we should request to stay down here with them."

Katt noticed someone walking up to them and cleared her throat. Krystal looked at her and then noticed what she meant. Sighing she sat up and tried to look good, it wasn't difficult, she may have been wearing her flight suit but she had designed it to be extremely form fitting. A moment later the man approaching them, a tall and lanky feline who only looked about twenty years old sat down at their table, without being invited. "Hello ladies."

Krystal nearly gagged at the thoughts she was sensing, Katt noticed it and tried not to laugh. Using her telepathy Krystal told Katt to take the lead on this one.

Katt smiled at him and said "Hey, what's your name?"

The feline smiled and said "Paris, how about yours?"

Katt looked him up and down and said "Hmmm, I might tell you, might. But first I want to know what you want."

Krystal nearly had a heart attack when she sensed what the feline was going to say. She was thinking _Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it!_

But of course he said it "Nothing special, just some action."

Katt rolled her eyes and said "Ha! Gain a few pounds and try and grow something worth my considering, then we'll talk. Come on Krystal, let's go."

The two got up and left the bar, as soon as they were out the door the young feline smiled and said into a communicator, "They left, and they're coming your way."

Katt and Krystal began walking down the street in no particular direction. The day was warm, it was always warm on Papetoon during this time of year. As the two walked Krystal became aware of something, she wasn't sure what it was but at the same time the feeling that she was getting wasn't good. She could tell there was some sort of danger, but she couldn't tell what it was or where it was coming from. She shrugged it off for the moment and the two continued walking.

The feeling then returned, stronger this time, strong enough that she stopped in mid stride and looked around. The street that they were walking on suddenly seemed very deserted. Katt seemed to notice it as well, he tail began to swish slightly. "What is it?"

Krystal closed her eyes and focused on the feeling. Then she suddenly heard something, and it was not just some sort of trick of the wind or of the mind. "Staff."

Katt looked at her and said "What?"

"DOWN!" Krystal tackled her companion to the ground just as a fire blaster bolt shot over their heads. "Sorry about that."

Katt pointed to something in the distance and said "No time for that, I think we have company."

Krystal heard the clatter of armored footsteps, standing up she drew her staff, she always kept it handy. Extending it she whispered to it "Rukkco." Meaning battle in Cerinian.

Katt had gotten up and pulled out a blaster which she was priming. Suddenly what Katt had pointed at was no longer distant, and there was no longer just one. There were at least a dozen approaching, as they came closer their armor identified them to Krystal "Demons, the Serpent Warriors, NO!"

As the Serpent Warriors got closer they opened fire again, Katt returned their fire as did Krystal, two of the Warriors went down, but the rest surged forward. Katt managed to fire off two more shots before the Serpent Warriors were at a range that was to close for her. Krystal however was having no problem, she and her staff were moving perfectly, as if they were really just one entity. One Warrior attempted to hit from behind, and she simply dodged and twirled her staff, knocking down the warrior she implanted the sharper end of the staff in his heart. Another two came at her and she blocked one of the staffs swings and then knocked both off of their feet with a rapid sweep, then she felt a sudden pain in her back, she fell screaming, tendrils of blue energy surrounded her, the pain drover her into unconsciousness.

As soon as Krystal went down the same thing happened to Katt. The remaining Serpent Warriors collected the two girls weapons and then stood at attention as a transport ring appeared in front of them. The Nevar materialized, he was wearing armor made of gold and carrying a staff. "Well done Warriors, we must return to our ship, take the prisoners as well."

The Warriors nodded and picked up Katt and Krystal, then returned to the transport ring. A moment later they were gone.

Fox was pacing on the bridge of the III, Krystal and Katt were now three hours overdue for both their check in and their return. Several attempts had been made to get a hold of them through their comms, but they had received no response, nor were their comm badges transmitting at all, meaning they couldn't use them as the tracking beacons that they usually were. Due to the lack of success with technology Fox, Fiora, and Decius, had all tried to contact Krystal mentally, once again to no success. Needless to say he was worried.

Fiora had for the past hour been attempting to locate their bio-signatures, in the hopes that that would give their location. So far they had had only limited success, since as it turned out DNA was no different on Papetoon than it was on Corneria or any other world in Lylat. Fiora saw him looking at her and said "Still nothing, but I've been expanding the search area, I and I'll cover the entire planet if I have too to find them."

Fox nodded and said "No doubt that you will. Have any ships left the planet?"

Fiora shrugged "I haven't been looking. Decius have you picked up anything?"

Decius looked down at his console and then said "Negative. At least none that weren't authorized to."

One of Fox's eyebrows shot up. "So how many have left the planet that were authorized to?"

Decius looked down again and then said "Twelve. Three commercial freighters, seven passenger ships, and two private owned ships, I'm going to check and see if any of them match the ship that we're looking for."

A moment later Decius said "Odd, one of the ships does match to a degree, but she's been heavily modified."

"How so?"

Decius blinked once and said "She now has six plasma rail guns, two missile batteries capable of firing multiple ship to ship warheads, as well as a military grade particle cannon. And she's a bit bigger too, big enough for a crew of about forty. But I would say it has to be our ship."

Fox walked over to him and said "Why do you say that?"

Decius looked at him and said "Because according to their outbound trajectory they're headed out of the star system. It looks like they're heading to the planet Ceti Alpha three."

Fox nodded and said "The we'll follow them. Helm set course and engage at maximum warp."

The helmsman nodded and Fox said "Decius, I want to know everything there is to know about this planet and the system, you'll be leading a briefing in one hour."

Decius nodded and said "Aye aye sir."

He felt his strength returning, a single Spell Stone was not enough for him to fulfill his plans, but it was a beginning. He immersed himself in the time streams and saw that a number of them were becoming favorable. He smiled when he saw that the Great Fox III was sufficiently distracted. He summoned Alex, it was time to get the rest of the Stones as soon as possible.


	6. Chapter 6 Sudden Strike

A/N: Here is chapter six; this is where things begin to really heat up. Read on, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Oh and by the way this may be the last update for awhile, just to let you all know.

Chapter Six

Sudden Strike

Whitefur sighed as he looked down at his desk. It was a mess, covered completely in papers and data files, his computer had thirty five different tabs open and his e-mail was overflowing, and when it came to his voicemail he was simply too scared to look. Sighing again he said "Some days I really hate this job."

Just then a hologram of his new AI assistant Donovan popped up and said "Afternoon sir, someone wants to see you, should I let them in?"

Whitefur looked at him and said "Depends on who they are, I mean it would matter if they were a team of highly trained assassins, or a group of politicians looking to me to back their pathetic re-election campaigns. On the other hand it would also matter in a good way if it were my wife or some other incredibly beautiful woman."

Donovan, his holographic ear twitching in amusement said "I think you could handle any one of those, but since you ask its General Grey, and it seems to be very urgent."

Whitefur nodded and said "Alright send him in, and it better be important."

Donovan nodded and a moment later Bill Grey walked in, his uniform a bit rumpled, and wearing an urgent expression. He sat down in one of the comfy chairs in front of Whitefur's desk and said "You are not going to believe this."

Whitefur raised an eyebrow "What is it? I hope it's important since as you can see I have a lot of work to be doing right now."

Bill looked at his desk and said "Right. OK here's the news, apparently one of the drones in the Aparoid System that maintains the quarantine there picked up something alarming."

Whitefur looked at him and said "Oh? What was it?"

"A fleet, at least four ships, they were leaving the system in a hurry. And they were big, we don't have any specific information on them yet, but they're on their way to our system."

Whitefur shook his head "Great, just great. Where exactly in the system are they heading?"

"Sauria."

"What?"

Bill grimaced, "You heard what I said, they're on their way to Sauria, and according to our estimates on their ETA we have about seven hours before they get here."

Whitefur sighed and stood up from his chair "Alright then, we're officially declaring a military emergency situation and going to combat readiness. I want a battle group put together in the next four hours, every available ship. And have ground forces ready as well, no telling what the situation will end up being."

Bill stood up and said "I'll do my best, but we don't have a lot of assets on call, but don't worry, you'll have everything I can get you."

Whitefur nodded and said "Go ahead and include the Corneria's Pride as flagship of that battle-group, I'm going to attend to this one personally."

Bill nodded and said "Yes sir."

With that Bill left and Whitefur sat back down. He hit his head on the desk to reassure himself that he could feel something and that he wasn't in a dream. When he was satisfied he was fully awake he said "Donovan, what are Sauria's defenses these days?"

Donovan popped up and said "Nada, nothing, at least nothing conventional sir, unless you count Krazoa Spirits and Spell Stones as conventional."

Whitefur looked at Donovan and said "Spell Stones?"

Donovan nodded "Yes sir, Spell Stones, they keep the planet from being torn apart by magical energy and…"

"Yes I know what they are." Whitefur sighed and said "But didn't Fox tell me that one of them was just stolen?"

Donovan nodded and again and said "Yes sir, why?"

Whitefur looked at him and said urgently "Get me a direct comm line to Prince Tricky, and I mean now!"

It wasn't often the Prince Tricky was contacted by anyone from Corneria's military, he didn't count Fox and Krystal since those were almost always social calls. But apparently this time General Whitefur needed to talk to him about something urgent, and he had a feeling it would have to do with the Spell Stone that had been stolen. Walking into the comm room that he had maintained for just such an occasion he said "Morning general, what is this all about?"

General Whitefur seemed to be looking extremely worried, so Tricky was glad that he had decided to skip the formalities. Whitefur simply said "You and your planet are going to be under attack soon. And I think that the attackers are going to be looking for the last three Spell Stones."

Tricky thought about this piece of information, wondering if there was really more to the situation. He guessed that there was but at the same time decided it probably wasn't immediately important to know. However an attack on his world was extremely important to know. "Who's going to be attacking?"

Whitefur shrugged and said "We're not exactly sure, but they're coming in four very large and most likely very powerful vessels. And at the speed that they're maintaining to get to your planet it's obvious that they mean business."

Tricky nodded, it didn't sound good, especially considering that in terms of surface to space weapons of any sort the dinosaurs of Sauria were extremely lacking. "I'll try and set up some sort of a defense, but we can't do much against ships. And it will take time to spread the word of an incoming attack, and even more time to rally our defenses."

Tricky tried not to think about the last time someone had attacked Sauria, it hadn't gone very well. The Aparoids had simply rolled over the defenses and would have taken over the entire planet had it not been for the Star Fox team's timely arrival. It seemed to him that when it came to technology he and his people were simply too far behind everyone to stand much of a chance anymore. He looked at Whitefur and Whitefur said "Don't worry, we're already assembly a battle group, it should be to Sauria in a few hours. But at the same time any help you can provide, especially on the ground would be much appreciated."

Tricky nodded and said "I'll do my best; the Sharpclaw tribe is near the Volcano Force Point Temple already, I'll tell them to do whatever they can to defend against attack."

Whitefur nodded and said "Good, we'll be there as soon as possible, good luck."

With that the transmission was cut and Tricky sighed, why couldn't his planet seem to catch a break?

Whitefur stepped off of the transporter pad and onto the deck of his old ship Corneria's Pride. He felt awash in sudden memories of when he had captained the vessel during the Battle of Fortuna and the war with the Aparoids. Not all of the memories were pleasant, considering he had nearly lost her several times. But it felt good to be back on the ship, he noticed then that the crewmen were standing at rigid attention, looking at them he said "Relax, and at ease. Permission to come aboard?"

As soon as he said this a tall canine sporting commanders pips on his jacket stepped forward and said "Sir, I'm, commander Holland, I'm pleased to report that the ship is combat ready sir. Welcome aboard."

Whitefur nodded, he felt a bit ashamed at the fact that this piece of information amazed him; it didn't feel good to realize that one's ship would be getting old. In fact Corneria's Pride was over thirty years old, one of the first ships of her class. Nodding to the commander he said "Good, because we're going to be heading out momentarily."

Walking out of the transporter room and into a nearby lift he said "Bridge." Then looking at the commander he said "How many ships did we manage to scrape up?"

Holland sighed and said "Only seven, no dreadnoughts either, just assault frigates, just like this one."

"Old?"

"Tried and true sir."

Whitefur smiled and laughed faintly at the comment, tried and true was an understatement, the Cornerian Assault Frigate class had been in service since the Lylat Wars, and still made up the vast majority of the fleet thanks to its versatility as well as combat effectiveness, and the fact that they were cheap and easy to mass produce. But he got the feeling that the commander had said that in an attempt to make sure he didn't offend someone who out ranked him by a dozen or more promotions. As soon as the lift doors opened to the bridge the crew snapped out of their seats and stood at attention. An ensign said "General on the bridge!"

Whitefur smiled and said "As you were." Walking the relatively short distance to the command chair Whitefur sat down, as soon as he was seated he noticed that the chair was the same as the one he had fist sat in, in fact it was the exact same one. Whitefur repressed a smile and wave of nostalgia and said "Is the fleet ready?"

Holland sat down beside him in the first officer's chair and said "Yes sir, all ships report ready and standing by."

Whitefur nodded "OK everyone, since time is of the essence here we're going to be using the orbital gate, since that will allow us the travel to Sauria in a matter of seconds. Communications; get me gate control."

The comm officer nodded and said "Gate control is on sir."

Whitefur nodded and said "Gate control this is the honorable general Whitefur of the CDF, we have great need of thou great services."

A few members of the bridge crew smiled at Whitefur's wording, a moment later the voice of the gate controller came back and said "Copy that general Whitefur, gate will be established momentarily, once it is move through at your discretion."

With that the Orbital Gate began linking its various parts together with plasma energy before establishing its stable artificial wormhole. Whitefur smiled, he loved seeing that. Hitting a button on the command chairs arm he said "All ships, go to an immediate tactical alert and then move through the gate. See you on the other side."

When the ships emerged they were immediately caught in a maelstrom, the four vessels had apparently arrived early, and the gate had tipped them off to the inbound CDF ships. The ships were massive, at least twice the size of the Great Fox III the largest ship in Lylat's history. The ships immediately opened fire with immensely powerful plasma canons and incinerated the first two ships to emerge from the Gate Lens, when the Corneria's Pride emerged a moment later Whitefur swore and yelled "SHIELDS! SHIELDS!" the ships shields snapped on with three seconds after his order, but the volley that they absorbed was still powerful enough to knock men off their feet and out of their chairs and cause several of the ships circuits to short out.

Whitefur picked himself up off the floor and said "Damage report!"

Commander Holland looked down at a console and said "Heavy damage, shields depleted, main power and weapons offline sir."

Whitefur swore again, his ship was a sitting duck. "What about the rest of the fleet?"

Holland looked up and said in a shocked tone "We're the only ones left sir; all other vessels have been completely destroyed."

Whitefur's eyes widened in shock, looking at the screen he said half to himself "Then what are they waiting for?"

The four vessels, shaped like stately pyramids simply hovered there in front of Whitefur and his ship, unmoving. The rest of the bridge crew was watching with Whitefur, all of with expressions of the same emotions, worry, fear, and anger. Whitefur looked at Holland and said "Commander, do we still have sensors?"

Holland nodded "Yes sir we do."

Whitefur nodded and said "Then scan the areas in and around the Force Point Temples, I want to know what the hell is going on down there right now."

Holland nodded and said a moment later "Sir, I'm detecting several energy surges, and a lot of weapons fire, looks like something down there is attempting to breach the Temples."

Whitefur walked over and said "What kind of energy spikes are they?"

Holland looked down at the console and said "Some variation on transporter technology. But the thing is the spikes all emanate from within the Temples, like they have their own transporter pads. And the readings aren't coming from the warp pads in the temples."

Whitefur sighed and said "I don't like this. Do we have communications?"

Holland shook his head "Negative sir, the comms array was destroyed almost immediately."

Whitefur nodded glumly and said "Do we have engines?"

Holland nodded "Sub-light engines are online, just barely sir."

Whitefur sighed, he didn't want to just turn tail and run, but he didn't have much of a choice, his ship couldn't do anything without weapons, and without communications he couldn't raise the invasion alarm from where they were. But before he could give the order one of the crewmen pointed at the viewscreen and said "Sir, the ships, they look like their leaving."

Whitefur looked up and said simply "No. Damn it."

Holland looked at him and said "Sir?"

Whitefur sighed and said "Those ships were looking for the Spell Stones, and it looks they got them."

And then as the four ships disappeared into faster than light speeds Sauria began to break apart, already feeling the loss of the Spell Stones.


	7. Chapter 7 Prisoners

A/N: Hey guys, I realize that I am long overdue for an update so I finally decided to sit and write this chapter up for anyone who still even cares about the story. In this chapter we will finally meet and find out who "He" is, and the real reason that they captured Krystal and Katt. So read on and enjoy it…

Chapter Seven

Prisoners

As a rule Krystal didn't really believe in being heroic. She believed in surviving, and that was what made her so good at winning fights. True she was willing to die if it meant saving others, but when it came down to it, if you sacrificed yourself when you didn't have you weren't heroic, you were just stupid. So when she woke up and she discovered she was tied to a chair she immediately began looking for an escape route. She could see, or rather sense Katt next to her, she was still unconscious, and she could also sense something else. A certain malevolence and a great deal of pain and fear, and it wasn't hers or Katt's.

As she made a visual inspection of the room she found that they were in a dark cell, about twenty feet in diameter and with the only visible light coming from the lasers that served as their cage bars. The lasers had a bright green hue to them, one that she found a little strange, most laser sensors were red. She heard something, like a door opening, but she couldn't see anything, the room was suddenly a lot darker, and the light from the lasers wasn't that far reaching. She heard footsteps, they were slow, deliberate, Krystal knew that whoever was in hear with her was trying to scare her, make her show weakness. He didn't have much luck. Then she noticed that whoever it was seemed to be the center of the pain that she had been feeling, if not the fear. She smiled mentally, she might be able to use that, play on this person's pain to help her escape.

After a few moments the footsteps stopped and she heard a voice say "You know I thought all of the Cerinians died a long time ago."

Krystal simply said "Guess you were wrong."

The voice replied "Hmmm, I suppose I was. But then, one can't always keep track of the lives of you mortals."

Krystal raised an eyebrow "Us mortals? And I suppose you think you're immortal."

The voice almost sounded like it was smiling, "Close enough, after all, a few million years is nothing to sneeze at."

Krystal felt something brush at her consciousness; someone was trying to enter her mind. It wasn't a very strong attempt, and she easily blocked it. She smiled and said "I assume that was you. Not a very powerful mind if you ask me."

The voice laughed, it was a hollow booming laugh that sent chills down Krystal's spine. "Ah, I see you labor under the impression that I was actually trying. I wasn't, I just wanted to see how far your kind have progressed. I must say in only a hundred thousand years you've gone a long way. But that doesn't really matter; you haven't gone nearly far enough. Now, I have been directing this conversation for far too long, ask me something."

Krystal looked at Katt then said "Will she ever wake up?"

The voice said "Of course she will, but not until I need her to. Ask me something else, something important, I sense that you have many questions."

Krystal frowned, she wasn't sure what it was trying to do, after all when you were being interrogated you usually weren't the one asking the questions. But she realized that this could at least allow her to gain some valuable intelligence on whoever this was. "Fine, who are you?"

The voice answered saying "I am called by many names, Death's Awakening, the Destroyer of Worlds, but to you I would be Kxo Jfahak."

Krystal's eyes widened in disbelief, Kxo Jfahak meant The Spirit in Cerinian. And The Spirit was what had destroyed her world. "You destroyed my world.' But I helped to kill you, there's no way you could be back."

The voice was suddenly given form as a tall figure covered head to toe in a hooded cloak, with black gloves on his hands appeared. "I'm not back, at least not all the way. The Spell Stones have given me enough strength to return, but only the Heart of Cerinia can bring me all the way back. And I intend for you to help me find it."

Krystal scoffed and said "Oh right, like I would help you find anything, especially something that can make you anymore powerful. Besides, I don't even know where it is."

The Spirit laughed, sending chills down Krystal's spine once again, and then he said "Oh but you do know where it is, it is in your very essence, you are a survivor, and people survive the death of worlds for a purpose."

Krystal took on a stoic expression; she refused to believe that her surviving the death of her people was by this things design, after all why would he let her survive when she was capable of killing him? Of course she realized, she apparently hadn't killed him well enough, since he was there talking to her right now, apparently giving her some sort of cryptic saying intended to inspire fear or doubt. "Well then, I refuse to believe that I survived because I'm destined to help you. And nothing you do will make me help you."

The Spirit sounded as if he was smiling when he said "Ah but Krystal, I don't need you to agree to help me of your own accord, but just think about your friend there," he pointed at Katt, "Or if that does not convince you think about your husband, or better yet your child. Yes your child, Marcus, so full of childlike innocence, something that can easily be shattered should something happen to you or your husband. As to what _will_ happen if you decide not to help me, I leave you with that thought, I can think of no greater torment for someone as selfless as you."

As he turned to leave Krystal said "Your desperate aren't you, and I can tell you're actually very afraid, I didn't think it was you at first, but now I know, you're afraid of something. What could it be?"

The Spirit said angrily "You have one day to decide if you will help me, or your friend dies, and after that, many more will die." With that he left and the door shut.

Krystal sighed, she was really in a mess, she seemed to have a talent for getting into those at times. She looked at Katt, still unconscious, she tried to extend her mind to Katt, but when she did she found an iron barrier blocking her. She could not tell Katt anything, she could tell her nothing reassuring, she could not even tell if she was dreaming. _Though,_ Krystal thought,_ if she is dreaming, I'm not sure I want to know what she's being made to dream._

Taking a breath she sat back against the chair, closing her eyes she extended her consciousness outward until it encompassed the entire ship, at first she could sense nothing but Serpent Warriors and The Spirit, but then she touched on something different, a mind that was alive, or at least more alive than any of the others. She focused on it, hoping that whoever it was wouldn't be able to detect telepathic contact, she soon found that whoever it was, was like her a prisoner. But not the same kind of prison she was in, nothing physical, this was mental, even spiritual, but a prisoner in his own mind. She carefully probed deeper, looking for the thoughts that were truly the persons, not the ones that he was forced to think, she found them, tucked away in the sub-conscious, beaten nearly into submission. Nearly, but not entirely, whoever he was, he was still trying to think for himself, he knew on some level that what he was doing was wrong and not of his own accord. She smiled to herself and planted a simple thought, do what is right. All she could hope was that whoever it was would be able to break through and regain control of themselves; and quickly, after all she had only a day until The Spirit killed Katt.

The Spirit sat lounged in a chair of solid gold, he didn't really need to sit, he barely ever needed rest, not with four Spell Stones. But still, it felt good, though he could barely feel at all. As he sat he considered how his plan had gone, he had gained control of the Spell Stones, captured a Cerinian survivor, and even now was preparing an invasion of the galaxy to reclaim his rightful place as emperor, something that had been denied to him millennia ago by the Formers. The Formers, he hated them, he hated everything about them, and he hated every race they had seeded, Cerinians, Lylatians, every one of them. He would have liked nothing better than to wipe them all from existence, but then there would be no one left to rule over, and that would defeat the purpose of being emperor.

He had been around this tiny ship that belonged to that tiny being known as Nevar, he found it unimpressive, and the technology was all of Lylatian design and so was quite inferior. He would have much rather been on one of the two Pyramid ships that were protecting the vessel, but Krystal and her friend were on this ship, and he did not feel it necessary to move them, so he would have to make do. But the throne room was at least sufficiently impressive, all solid gold decorated with ornate carvings and glyphs of his people's language. And then of course there were Serpent Warriors arrayed around and within it, that alone would make it intimidating to the average person. He sighed to himself, in a little less than twenty four hours he would either have the means to find the Heart of Cerinia easily, or he would kill a Lylatian himself for the first time.


	8. Chapter 8 Unexpected Guests

A/N: I am sorry that this update took me so long to do, and I really don't have an excuse other than that I was playing halo and star fox when I usually worked on my stories. But either way here it is finally, I hope you like it, so read and enjoy and of course review if you want. And now onwards to the chapter…

Chapter Eight

Unexpected Guests

"I never thought he would, or even could return. The fact that he has seems to show that we have dreadfully underestimated him as a foe. Something must be done immediately." Right of Reason looked around the council chamber. The four other figures, all encased in white armor, were inscrutable to the naked eye. But it had been long since his people had relied on such things as the naked eye unaided. Therefore he could see the how his fellow council members reacted, Logic and Justice both raised their eyebrows, and Power of Many seemed to flick between himself and the two other consciousnesses that inhabited his body. As for Strength of Honor, she seemed to remain completely emotionless at the news of Kxo Jfahak's return. Something that amazed Right of Reason, seeing as she was so old that she had fought in the war between his people and the Maia.

Finally Logic said "At the current time I doubt we are in the position to do very much about his return. We have our own problems here in our own galaxy, thus we have few if any resources to devote to an entirely different galaxy."

Right of Reason looked incredulously at Logic before saying "And do we not have an oath to defend the Lylat galaxy at such time when the Krazoa can no longer fulfill that role? And in case you haven't notice they have all ascended, all of them are spirits, and only six remain in the corporeal world to any degree. And they cannot use their power for anything but maintaining Sauria, after all that was the agreement between the Six and the Rest. Therefore I would say that we must do all we can to fulfill our oath, one that was written into the Treaty of the Remnants over one hundred thousand years ago. We would be remiss not to hold up our end of the bargain."

Justice spoke then saying in her soft but strong voice "We cannot fight two wars in two different galaxies. And besides, have not the Cornerians of the Lylat System advanced to a degree where they are capable of interstellar travel?"

Right of Reason nodded "Yes they have, but they have not advanced to the point where they could truly have a chance of challenging the Maia, especially Kxo Jfahak. To not assist them would not only be in violation of the Treaty of the Remnants, but we would also be dooming the Lylatians and the rest of their offshoots throughout the galaxy to slavery and death. If the weight of the treaty will not impress you enough to do something consider the fact that it is morally unthinkable for us to sit back and watch the enslavement of billions when we could prevent it. It would be a rampant injustice, which if I may be so bold as to say, that kind of a suggestion is the last thing I would expect from you Justice."

Justice bristled slightly at the remark, and unusual show of emotion for Right of Reason's people. Logic then said "At times treaties must be overlooked when it will benefit no one to act upon them."

Right of Reason raised an eyebrow and said "And what does that mean? How can helping billions benefit no one?"

Logic said deadpan "Because we lack the resources to win that kind of a war in any amount of time. Keep in mind Right of Reason; we are at war already, with an enemy that makes the Maia look like disobedient children. We cannot afford to become distracted."

Right of Reason was beginning to have difficulty keeping his emotions in check. "Who said we have to end the war speedily? Who said we have to go in with the full force of our fleet? All I am saying is that we could do something. Perhaps send me with what ships we have available and allow me to help the Cornerians and the rest of their galaxy to help themselves. I never meant to say that we had to fight the entire war single handedly."

Power of Many spoke then and said "How many ships does he have? How much of his former strength has Kxo Jfahak regained? Without knowledge like that we have no idea if we will have to send one ship or many. And how much of his own personal strength has he regained?"

Right of Reason shrugged something that most would consider an impolite show of emotion, but in the privacy of the council chamber none of the others seemed to have been offended. Right of Reason then said "Well, we know from the Krazoa that Sauria is breaking up, thus the Spell Stones have been taken. So I would assume he can take some sort of form, most likely energy. But so long as he does not have the Heart of Cerinia he will not have any sort of overwhelming personal power. As for his military strength, I can only guess. He does not appear to be interested in telling us that information."

Power of Many's voice changed, it was now deeper and slightly hollow, indicating that one of the other minds within him was speaking, "And if he somehow obtains the Heart of Cerinia, how powerful will he be then?"

Right of Reason shook his head and said "Powerful enough to challenge the full force of the Krazoa's power, as well as whatever we could throw at him. With the Heart of Cerinia he could also find a great many of our old outposts throughout the Lylat Galaxy, which would only add to his military power. We must realize that if we do not stop him soon he will come looking for us, and when he finds us he may very well help the Enemy destroy us. To move first somehow is our only option."

At that point Strength of Honor finally spoke, her voice was heavy with age, she was after all over one hundred thousand years old. She said simply "I agree with Right of Reason, we must act now. I vote to send Right of reason with three ships under his command to the Lylat Galaxy, to fight Kxo Jfahak, and to ally with all the people of the Lylat Galaxy."

Right of Reason was barely able to contain his grin of satisfaction at having gained her support, she was after all the head of the council, and her word carried great weight throughout the worlds of his people's empire. Logic and Justice nodded their ascent a moment later, soon followed by Power of Many, and finally Right of Reason added his own vote, making it unanimous. Right of Reason rose from his seat and said "I will make the necessary preparations, and signal you when I am ready to depart."

With that he left the chamber, as soon as he was out he smiled; finally he would be able to go back to the galaxy where his people, The Formers, had seeded life. It was a good day indeed, darkened only by the fact that he was going only to fight a new enemy of his people.

Several hours later Right of Reason stood on the bridge of the Former ship Atlantis. Looking down into the crew pit he said "Communications get me the Ruling Council." A moment later the images of the four other council member appeared as shimmering holograms. Right of Reason said "We are ready to break orbit of the Home world on your go ahead."

Strength of Honor said "You have our permission to leave. Good luck Right of Reason, you may need it."

Right of Reason nodded and said "Thank you Strength of Honor. We will not fail you in this mission." With that the communications ended and Right of Reason said "Helm, tell the Thor and the Set that we are go for warp. Set course for the Lylat Galaxy and engage Intergalactic Hyper warp Drive in five seconds."

Five seconds later the three massive vessels jumped to warp, leaving behind their own galaxy to defend one that their race had not inhabited in tens of thousands of years.

"Fox, we can't attack them, not with those two ships there. It would be suicide."

Fox looked at Decius and said "How well armed are they?"

Decius frowned and said "Fox, those are Maia ships, not only do they have weapons that make this ships main cannons look like pop-guns, they also might have Maia on them. And Maia telepathic powers make Cerinian telepathic powers look pathetic. They could take over anyone of us and get us to do anything they wanted. Like, oh I don't know; blow up the ship or something."

Fox raised an eyebrow at Decius. He had never heard of the Maia, and as far as he knew no one he knew had, and yet Decius seemed to know enough about them to have encountered them at some point. "How do you know so much about them? I've never heard of them."

Fiora spoke up and said "I'm not surprised, it something only a Cerinian could know. They were an ancient enemy that fought a war with the Formers; they were eventually defeated after a thousand years of fighting. But after that the Formers left, I think because of the devastation that the war caused."

Fox shrugged and said "Well that's a nice thing to know, but keep in mind we have two people who have been captured by these Maia, I need a plan of action, and I need to know something that we can use to defeat them. Hell I would even be willing to negotiate if I have to."

Decius shook his head and said "Well negotiation is out of the equation from the start. If they decided to take a prisoner than they have a very good reason, and they won't release them, the only way we can get Katt and Krystal back is to engage, but we'll need reinforcements."

Fox sighed and said solemnly "Well I doubt that's going to happen. Apparently these guys took out every available ship the CDF has, in one battle over Sauria, and it didn't last too long apparently."

Fiora looked up suddenly and said "I'm detecting a group of ships approaching our position, they're huge, and their going fast."

Fox walked over to her and looked at the readouts scrolling across her sensor screens, the ships were indeed massive, about fifty kilometers in length and twelve in breadth. But it was the speed that they were traveling at that truly made him wonder, they were traveling at warp fifteen, beyond anything that he and the rest of Lylatian civilization thought was unattainable. Looking at Fiora he said "How can they be going that fast? Isn't that beyond the theoretical limit for warp drive?"

Fiora said "Yes, according to what we know about warp drive it should be impossible to go beyond warp ten. But I suppose it's possible that with technology advanced enough someone could attain that speed. But I really have no idea how they would."

Fox shrugged, at this point the speed they were travelling at and the technology they had were unimportant. "How long until they get to us?"

Fiora checked a readout and said "At their present speed, one minute."

Fox shook his head, that impressed him, according to what he could see the ships were still roughly sixteen light-years away. Looking at Decius he said "Bring the ship to yellow alert, all defensive systems to standby. And give me a tactical analysis as soon as they're in range."

Decius nodded the bridge lights dimmed slightly and single alarm klaxon rang out across the ship signaling the yellow alert status. Fox took his seat in the command chair and looked at Fay next to him. "Any idea who they might be?"

Fay shook her head "No idea, I just hope they aren't hostile. People who can build ships that big and travel that fast, I don't think we would want to be on the receiving end of their weapons batteries."

Fox nodded, he heard a faint beeping of a proximity sensor alert as the three massive ships came out of warp. Fox looked at them closely on the view-screen, their size was no exaggeration, at fifty in length and twelve in width a single one was enough to fill the view-screen. The ships looked to Fox to be made for intimidation, weapons batteries bristled along the hull, and the ships appeared to be dark black, blending in with the space around them so that they looked more like shadows then ships. But for all the intimidation of the look for some reason their presence seemed to reassure Fox. Looking at Decius he said "Tactical analysis?"

Decius looked at his readings and whistled "Impressive."

Fox sighed and said "That's a little vague D."

Decius raised an eyebrow at being called "D" but ignored it. Looking at his readouts he said "Forty eight ion cannons, capable of twenty six gigajoule output, eighty two plasma batteries capable of twenty gigajoule output, and what looks like fourteen torpedo launchers and a stockpile of anti-matter weapons that could blow up a planet."

Fox took a breath and said "Sweet."

Fay looked up and said "They're hailing us."

Fox nodded and said "All right put them on."

The view-screen changed from an image of the ships to the image of a man in white armor sitting on a large command chair. The man's face was obscured by a helmet, but he then stood up and said "I am Right of Reason, commander of the First Former Lylatian fleet and member of the high council. To whom am I speaking?"

Fox noticed that Fiora and Decius seemed in shock, in fact both of their jaws were unhinged and their eyes were threatening to burst from their sockets. He tried not to laugh, standing up and approaching the screen he said "I am admiral James Fox McCloud of the Cornerian Defense Force, supreme commander of the navy. We are currently engaged in a rescue operation, would you will be willing to assist us?"

Right of Reason nodded and said "Very much willing, in fact that's why we are here. We have detected two Maia ships and small Lylatian vessel. We will engage the Maia ships while you rescue whoever you need to."

Fox nodded and said "Very well, I hope we can cooperate further after this commander."

Right of Reason nodded and said "Yes, after this me and my people have a proposal to make. Allow us to head in first and draw away the Maia ships and then you can move in."

Nodding Fox sat back down as the communication ended. Looking at Decius he said "So looks like we got those reinforcements after all." Opening the ship wide intercom he said "All hands to battle stations."


	9. Chapter 9 Let the Good Times Roll

A/N: Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the end of this story, and it is a quick end. I must apologize for the quality of this story; I don't feel that it is really all that good. Though there is a sequel that I will eventually right, it will not be one that I begin right away. I intend to do something a little different; I'm going to go back to the Star Fox team that I created in my story Revenge from an Old Foe. Things will be a bit more personal for the characters in my new story which is already underway and should be posted with all speed. I would like to say that I appreciate everyone sticking with this for so long, now read on with this chapter. This author's note has been too long.

-General Whitefur

Chapter Nine

Let the Good Times Roll

Right of Reason looked at the holographic displays flitting around him on his command chair, weapons were hot, shields at maximum, and the ships battle engines were ready. Looking down into the crew pit he said "Helm, take us in at battle speed. Tactical train weapons on the first Pyramid vessel and coordinate our attacks with the Set and the Thor. And inform bays two and three to be prepared to launch drone fighters on my signal."

The acknowledgments he received were quick and precise. His orders were carried out and in a matter of seconds the three massive ships were approaching their intended targets. He could see the Great Fox III preparing to move in behind them, he smiled slightly behind his helmet, the Lylatians had indeed come far indeed, and he hoped that with his help they could go even farther.

The ships alert klaxons began blaring as they were spotted by the first Maia ship, the pyramid shaped vessel was training weapons on them he could see, the Atlantis's shields however were at maximum and he knew they would hold against several consecutive bombardments. One of the tactical officers looked up at him and said "Weapons locked sir, permission to commence firing?"

Right of Reason nodded "All weapons fire."

Immediately a full bombardment of blue colored ion energy shot out from both his ship and the two others. The first Maia ship was caught off guard and suffered heavy damage, but the other quickly returned fire. The deck vibrated slightly as the plasma impacted the shields, but according to the readouts they had barely even been scratched. One of the crewmen said "Sir the enemy is launching starfighters."

Right of Reason nodded, the fighters would attempt to keep his ships occupied while the mothership prepared to either attack or retreat. "Tell bays two and three to launch drone fighters to intercept and destroy the enemy. Then set a course away from the ships, hopefully they will follow."

Once more his orders were promptly carried out and the three ships began to move away, moments later five more Maia Pyramids came out of warp directly ahead of them. Right of Reason's eyes widened, he hadn't expected reinforcements so quickly. "Where did they come from?"

One of the crewmen said "They appeared to be waiting at the very edge of the system, they are charging weapons."

Right of Reason didn't hesitate "Fire on them and then tell the Great Fox III that if they want to get their crewmen back they had better do it fast."

The ship shook violently as it absorbed a withering volley of plasma from the newly arrived Maia vessels. "Damage?"

A screen flitted in front of him with a damage assessment, he raised an eyebrow, the ship had actually sustained hull damage. "Computer analyze these new ships, look for any sort of modifications."

A moment later another screen moved in front of him. He read it twice before saying "Communications, tell all ships to divert auxiliary power to shields, the hostile ships are more powerful than expected. Tactical firing solution on the lead ship, fire when ready."

The ship rocked again from multiple impacts, this time the shields seemed to have served them better with the increased power, but it was a temporary measure at best. He called up a direct line of communication from him to Fox and as soon as the image came up he said "Admiral McCloud, you must move in and accomplish your objective as quickly as possible, we cannot hold off this many ships forever."

Fox nodded and said "We're already moving in, shouldn't be too long."

Right of Reason nodded, "We'll hold them as long as we can."

Fox looked at Decius "I thought these guys were supposed to be way more powerful then these 'Maia' guys."

Decius looked at him "They're Formers; they left this galaxy a hundred thousand years ago. And that means I don't know anything about them after that point."

Fox shrugged "Whatever, so long as they hold them off. Decius you're with me, Fay you have the bridge."

Fay looked at him and said "Sir?"

Fox stood up and looked at her with a raised eyebrow "Do you have a problem with that order?"

Fay shook her head "No sir, I just thought that perhaps the Supreme Commander of the Cornerian Navy should be up here conducting a naval battle."

Fox shook his head "This is personal. Decius grab your staff and two blasters for yourself and me, and then let's get down to the transporter room."

Decius smiled and said "Everything is ready down there. I also took the liberty of including grenades and breach charges."  
Fox grinned and said "Fine, looks like we can make enemies go boom. Let's move."

As soon as the materialized inside the ship Fox and Decius secured the room they were in. It seemed to be a cargo bay of some sort. There were numerous boxes strewn about in piles and stacks, and the room was dark and appeared empty. Fox looked at Decius and said "Can you sense her?"

Decius nodded "And Katt, they're on this deck. Probably about twenty meters down the hallway."

Fox nodded and checked the charge on his blaster before saying, "Let's rock and roll." The two headed out into the hallway, checking their corners they continued on until they came to door at the end of the hall.

Fox looked at Decius who said "This is it. I'll set a door breach charge."

Fox nodded "I hope they aren't right next to the door."

Decius shook his head and set the charge. The two stepped several meters away and the charge blew the door down. They charged in and checked the room. There was no one there but Krystal and Katt. Krystal looked at Fox and smiled "I should've expected you to come back for me."

Fox smiled and said "Yep. Alright, let's get off this crate so the III can blow to hell." Tapping his comm badge he said "Fox to Great Fox III, four to beam up."

The transporter energized and they were beamed off the ship.

As soon as the rematerialized Fox told Decius to take Krystal and Katt to the med bay, Krystal looked at him expectantly before she left, Fox smiled and kissed her. She whispered in his ear "I'll thank you for the rescue tonight."

Fox returned to the bridge and said "Fay, will you lock on the main guns to that ship and fire?"

Fay nodded and walked over to the tactical console, locking the main guns she said "Firing."

To beams of orange colored plasma were emitted and the ship exploded. Fox smiled and said "I guess that's that."

Looking at the screen he saw that the other hostile ships were beating a hasty retreat, turning to Fay he said "Tell Right of Reason that we intend to set course for the Lylat System. And tell him he's free to tag along."

Fay nodded and sent the message. Several moments later the group of ships went to warp, the Great Fox III heading home with a few new friends.

Epilogue

Kxo Jfahak smiled, so they thought him dead? They were foolish. Though the arrival of the Formers was troubling, he would have to accelerate his plans, he could not be sure whether or not the Formers would send more ships. But he was close to having the Heart of Cerinia, and when he had it, he would be undefeatable. He laughed into the vastness of space around him; nothing would stop him…nothing.


End file.
